As I told you at the first class, I want to research about the deformation of the grid system. In this research, the grid system means that the traditional way of making the material and visual thing what we have seen till nowadays in our life, surroundings. Before researching that, I want to talk about the reason why I will research that topic, even it seems not to be clear and definite. Historically, the grid system is developed for a long time, it is not an immutable thing itself. When people started to recognize a power of geometry in the early ages, they automatically understood the grid system and use it in their life. For example, they could make a thousand of adobe as a same size and they piled them up to make their house and palace. They could use a ruler and graduator to check size and dimension. From Vitruvius to Le corbusier, this linear based system (I want to say it is also a part of traditional grid system) was continued and even till now, most of manufacturer who produce various material keep this system in their environment.
But, from the starting point of the free-form design, it bring out serious problem between linear based grid system and curved shape from the process of the free-form design. In my opinion, it is a conflict, discord.
Recently, Toyo Ito who is an architect in japan announced his idea of the new grid system which is named as 'the Emerging Grid' in his exhibition 'the New 'Real' in Architecture 2008'. We can see many trials to overcome this unclear situation even except the case of Toyo Ito. Many architect try to make a new grid system and apply it to their new design and theory.
In my research, firstly I want to see the differences the character of normal grid system and free-form at the element level. Secondly, I look for the new grid system which is suitable for the free-form condition. It can come from the deformation of traditional grid system and it can use a non-linear formular as well.
In the next script, I will show you the general structure of this research.
This explanation of your interests and topic is good, Dong, and I quite agree with your observations on the arbitrariness of the conventional grid systems. (Though bearing in mind that some cultural conventions become so ubiquitous that people are either very reluctant or completely unable to see them as being intentionally mutable, and that in some situations the value of the resulting stability may exceed the value of innovation.)
ReplyDeleteThe questions underlying this topic: "why do grid systems need to be deformed?" or "why is free-form architecture desirable?" - which you do not ask or answer - are obviously too large to study here, so we must take it for granted that deformed grids may be a good thing (and I don't think we'd have to feel too guilty about doing so ... it seems a reasonable assumption.)
I think the use of the word "grid" may be problematic here, unless you're very conscious of why you're using it. For example, if you're just looking for some organizing principles for the arrangement of components into a free-form surface, there's no real need to resort to grids at all - deformed or otherwise. It's another popular convention to think in terms of grids, rather than nets, nests, clusters, heaps or even more amorphous arrangements.
To come to some specific questions which you can research will perhaps require that you focus on specific types of grid deformations whose results on constructive elements you can somehow evaluate, or on specific conditions of free-form surfaces which you can try finding suitable grid deformations to address.
Regarding your proposed reading list: please keep in mind that this is a very "hands-on" course, so while reading can certainly inform your work, you should definitely not delay engaging your topic experimentally.
I hope these comments help you, and look forward to reading your more developed research questions and proposed research structure.
André